Improvement in wash-boards



UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

WILLIAM WHITFORD, OF ALLEN TOWNSHIP, NOBLE COUNTY, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO DORAN P. HELMAN, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASH-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 158,341, dated December 29, 1874; application filed May 16, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

valuable Improvement in Wash-Boards; and

I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure 1 of the drawing is a representation of a plan view of my wash-board, and Fig. 2 is a sectional view.

This invention has relation to portable wash-boards with which reciprocating rubbers are combined; and it consists in a springframe running in grooves, whereby an elastic yielding motion is allowed to the rubber while working it, whereby it may accommodate itself to the bulk of the clothing operated upon, as will be hereinafter explained.

In the annexed drawings, A designates a wash-board, having either ,a corrugated fixed surface or a surface which is composed of rollers a. B B designate two side pieces, which are rigidly secured to a bottom board, B, and constructed with slots 1) through them, which slots are parallel to the plane of the rollers a, and receive in them flanged wheels 0 c, the flanges of which keep them in their places in the grooves 11. The flanged wheels 0 0 turn freely on the ends of a cross-bar, d, to which two springs, G (l, are secured. These springs O O are parallel to each other and to the sides B B of their wash-board, and they are secured to a cross-handle, e, of a rectangular frame,-D, which is composed of said handle, a cross-bar, f, and two longitudinal arms, rigidly secured together. The said springs O 0 pass beneath the cross-bar f, and are held up against it by means of springs s, which are coiled around rods g, that are secured to the springs O G, and passed freely through said cross-bar f.

It will be seen, from the above description, that during the act of reciprocating the rubber Gr, which is a corrugated board secured to i the frame D, over the wash-board of rollers a,

the rubber is allowed a yielding spring action, which will enable a person to wash the finest fabrics without liability of injuring them.

As the rubber-frame D bears, by its crossbar f, against the springs s on the tensionbolts g, which are attached to the elastic bars 0, this rubber-frame will yield readily to accommodate itself to the bulk of the wash.

Said yielding action will also allow the rubher to be brought down squarely upon the fabrics placed upon the wash board.

I am well aware that a wash-board having a sliding frame provided with a rubber, in combination with a slotted frame having a series of rollers, is not new, and therefore do not claim such invention, broadly.

I am aware that it is not new to connect the rubbing-board to the shaft of the slot-rollers by means of coiled springs. Hence I do not claim such invention; but

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a washing-m achine, the combination, with the slotted side pieces B, of the rubber-frame D, having the perforated spring-bridge fand handle 6, the wooden elastic bars C, extending from the said handle to the shaft of the slotrollers c, the adjustable tension-bolts g, ex tending through the bars 0 and bridgef, and the tension-springs s, all constructed and arranged as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM WHITFORD.

Witnesses:

H. L. HELMAN, S. 0. MILLER. 

